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A Solitary Unboxing – Hostage Negotiator: Crime Wave

Two unboxings in one week? Yes indeed! I had quite the fruitful week in terms of Kickstarter projects finally getting to me and so today I bring you another unboxing, this time of- Hostage Negotiator: Crime Wave. This is a really fun looking solitaire only (yay!) stand-alone expansion to 2015’s Hostage Negotiator that takes the same gameplay and expands upon it. Without further ado, the pictures!

Here is literally everything I got. As usual, I did an “everything” pledge which included Crime Wave, the original Hostage Negotiator, and every goody that’s come out since then in the form of extra packs and cards. I’ll go into everything in more detail below.

Here we have the paper goodies. The rulebook for CW on the left, the “how to pack your game” guide in the middle, and the expanded rules for the abductor packs on the right. Each pack comes with a rule card but this booklet gives you more in-depth information and guidance for how to use them.

The original Hostage Negotiator box is compact and great for traveling and fits in a compartment in the larger Crime Wave box. On the right we have the secret envelope that was unlocked as a stretch goal. I haven’t opened it yet (though I’m very curious) as I didn’t want my comments on this unboxing to inadvertently give anything away about the contents.

Cards galore! There are abductors, demands, conversations, and terrors. These are all of great quality and have a linen (I think) finish that makes them feel great.

Dividers for the Crime Wave box. They give you enough for all the content that’s been released so whether you just have CW or you have everything like me you’ll have dividers for it all.

All the little bits! We have some nice, custom dice at the top as well as threat and conversation markers. The alert tokens on the top right are a new addition in Crime Wave as some cards use them to reference thresholds or delayed events. The hostage pieces in CW are half male and half female to give them a bit more flavor.

An optional purchase during the Kickstarter (but from an outside source) were these metal dice to replace the ones that come with the game. I’m a sucker for add-ons so I got them (and they arrived months before the game, lol, so I had them and nothing to do with them for quite awhile).

Here is a comparison of the Crime Wave dice (which are themselves a bit bigger than the ones in the original Hostage Negotiator) and the metal dice. The symbols and numbers on each face are identical between them and honestly the base game dice are so nice I’m not sure how much I’ll end up using the metal ones.

Here are the 7 abductor packs that have been released so far (several of them were new for the Kickstarter of Crime Wave). These add new abductors and new mechanics to the game to spice up the gameplay. From what I’ve seen just opening and sorting them, they all seem really interesting.

The Demand Pack on the left further enhances the abductor side of gameplay, but it’s not the only way to change it up. The other packs contain negotiator cards of different flavors that provide you with a once-per-game bonus that can help give you an edge.

MEEPLES! I love meeples so much! The meeples for Hostage Negotiator replace the threat marker with a custom meeple for each abductor, and there are even 2 meeples for the negotiators themselves. I’m not sure their “official” purpose but I intend to use them to replace the conversation marker.

That is the COMPLETE Hostage Negotiator: Crime Wave experience! I am so unbelievably and unbearably excited to get this to the table, and have been ever since the Kickstarter was announced. Look for a combined review of the base game and Crime Wave sometime in the future here on Open Seat Gaming!